Welcome to a brief pity party. Everyone needs one now and then, I suppose although I abhor them, especially from me.
So I was typing up a post about trying to change my tone from frustrated to funny when there was a huge crash.
I went to the living room to find that Trey had knocked over the Christmas tree. For his own protection, I sent him to his room while cleaned up. The tree topper was shattered. I should have sent me to my room. I ended up cutting my hand while trying to clean up the broken glass.
I was vacuuming up the rest of the glass, looking hard for bits of shinyness on a carpet that looks like somone used my living room as a quicky-lube for 10 years before turning it into the front room of a house.
Tia and I have talked about trying to change our surroundings to match how we feel inside but when things like this happen, I can't help but think, "What' the point?"
Our old couch looked our carpet. My mom gave us her couch when she upgraded. Immediately, the dog ate the corners off the throw-pillows.
Tia put up a Christmas tree on Friday and it's destroyed on Sunday.
Right now, it seems like an uphill battle just keeping things from getting worse. Making things better? Fogedaboudit.
The old meaning for those that have missed out on this bit of marketing brainwashing went something like this:
All year, all the stores operate at a loss, just there providing all of us a much needed service out of the goodness of their hearts. They do this for 11 months and then magically, on the day after Thanksgiving, they do enough business to get out of the red and into the black. So, if you want these stores to continue to provide a service to you in the next 12 months, get out there at 5 am and do massive amounts of shopping.
Yesterday, it earned a much more valid definition. Yesterday at 5 am, 2,000 people trampled and killed the WalMart employee that was trying to open the doors to start the stupidity.
When the store was closed because of the murder of this unfortunate underpaid temp worker, the shoppers were angry because they had waited outside the doors since the night before.
Our propaganda news service had this great little bit included in the article about this tragedy:
"Items on sale at the Valley Stream Wal-Mart included a Samsung 50-inch Plasma HDTV for $798, a Bissel Compact Upright Vacuum for $28, a Samsung 10.2 megapixel digital camera for $69 and DVDs such as "The Incredible Hulk" for $9."
Can you believe this? They included a free ad for WalMart right in with this story about a herd of idiot shoppers that killed a man. Do they think that this somehow justifies the death of a human?
"Martha, did you see the story about the WalMart in New York?"
"Oh yes, just terrible. What were those people thinking?"
"Did you see the deal for the Plasma HDTV? Only $798."
"Oh my, I would totally kill for a deal like that."
It's been nonstop for me for a few days so let me first say "Thank You!" to everyone for the birthday wishes and the gifts. I will respond individually as well when I am able to catch up with everything.
We went over to my parents' place for Thanksgiving dinner. It was very nice. Very quiet. Trey was the only kid in the house and that made for a more peaceful Thanksgiving than usual.
After dinner, I laid down on the couch to watch the Cowboys. I think it's a rule or something. I hadn't had much down time for the last couple of days and got up at 4:30 to teach my exercise class (I gave them the option and they chose to exercise Thursday and Friday - that's dedication) and my parents had the heat in the house turned up to about 80 or some unreasonably hot temperature. Combine all that with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and some scrumptious dinner rolls and I was quickly asleep.
Until I heard this gawdawful noise.
I tried to resist opening my eyes because I had to go back to work. I was on a 4 hour break for Thanksgiving and then was going to be going back. Continuing this little nap would be wonderful. I had fallen asleep late in the second quarter and now it was halftime. I don't even think that technically counts as a nap. That's more of a head nod then a nap.
The noise didn't stop though and I opened my eyes. On the TV was some boy band who made NSync sound like Pavarotti. "I make better noises sitting on the toilet," a former employer of mine would have said of these guys.
Mind you, I was watching a football game when I fell asleep. Helmets crashing together, whistles blowing, mixed with Chevy Truck commercials played 10 decibels higher than the game where trucks crash through exploding buildings. I slept through all of that only to have my peace disturbed by teenagers pretending to be rock stars.
You can watch this if you would like to share the pain. Just so you know, I did not watch this video. I just found an official video and posted it here. I can't go through it again. The trauma is too much to relive. I add it here on my blog because until this half-time show, I had never heard of Jonas Brothers and so I figure, many of you may have never heard of them or (thankfully) heard them.
My dad came back to the room. He must have left when the quarter ended and now reappeared with a "What the hell is that noise?"
"I don't know," I said. I wouldn't learn the name of the band until they were done singing lip syncing to something that should never have seen the light of day.
Dad had a piece of pie with him so I decided to console myself and try to move out of earshot of the TV by going to the kitchen for a piece of pie myself.
When I got back, they were done and we got to watch Chevy trucks drive through exploding buildings again. May I insert here that they will never make trucks look cool enough for me to purchase just for the sake of having a truck?
"Who decides the halftime show?" my dad asked.
Seriously, how many 12 year old girls are watching the Cowboys game? I'm sure there are a few but don't you think the largest demographic is adult males? Who was the genius that decided to put a terrible boy band as a halftime show for a football game? I wouldn't have been surprised if they had followed up the show with those pink text message thingies for pre-teen girls. Wouldn't Chevy and Bud Light commercials be a hint of what kind of show to put on for half-time? Hell, just play some music and let the Cheerleaders dance. What's next year's half-time show going to be? Disney Princess Songs?
First a little some-some for Mark who I have neglected for far too long.
What's different about this post? That there is an actual post. I have gone from doing a post per day for 2 different blogs to doing no posts at all for any blogs. I've had things going on.
Okay, I'll confess that I haven't had so much going on that I could take a bit of time out to write a blog post here and there.
I don't know what to write about. I am at a loss, not for words, but of topics.
Very few people people care about what I have to say about money. I'm burned out on politics because our system is so corrupt that we never even talk about true solutions. Not to mention that I want to really focus on the positive for the next year and that means not talking about the national economy and how our elected officials continue to sell us out to the highest bidder.
One more note of a negative nature before I try my best to focus on the positive. I will fight Obama's illegal siezure of my 401k in any way that I legally can. "Hello Communism, never thought I would see you here." I talked to a 401k investor recently about the attempt and he thinks that the people with 401k's will be able to block the passage of the bill but he said that we should be vigilant. He has quite a bit invested, as you may have guessed, and is completely against having his 401k stolen and redistributed. My fear is that since we have abandoned the Constitution and individual rights and have even gone past Mob Rules into Socialsim, that we won't be able to stop this.
My instinct says to go back to fitness but I'm not sure what I can add to that in a way that is new. I have been doing pretty much the same thing now since June. I did throw in one twist that I can talk about but I'm not sure how much distance I could get out of that.
What do you want to hear about?
Until I hear back, I suppose I'll find health and fitness topics to post about.
No long lines here. One of the benefits of the small town. I went to vote before lunch thinking that might help as well.
I also took my sample ballot with me that I had filled out already.
With my memory, I just play it safe. I have email reminders, notes on my calendars, cell phone reminders, and a string tied around my finger.
I had reviewed the races that I was interested in and made my choices in the sample ballot. Then it was just going to be a simple case of copying the votes to the machine. Simple enough. Quick too.
As opposed to the few people ahead of me in line.
I watched these people with fascination. Many of them were making up their minds right there.
There were questions about unconstitional laws, eminent domain, and sales tax. How anyone could choose the right answer without reading up on these things is quite beyond me.
The eminent domain case will blow your mind with its unsubtle unethicalness. A casino was trying to buy some property that had a house on it in Las Vegas. The owner wouldn't sell. The casino went to the government and asked for some help. The government took the house and paid the home owner, low balling. The government then turned around and sold the property to the casino at value making a bit of profit. It used this profit as the rule allowing the theft of the house on the casinos behalf. The government can take property if it uses it for public use. The government used the money from the sale for public use. Ta da!
Luckily enough people actually read up on the thing and voted for a change in the law. Now the government has to pay the value of the property and use the actual property for the public. The government can not be used as a middle man to transfer private property around.
Duh!
Anyway, back to the point. How can you possibly walk up to the booth without some kind of clue? My guess? People don't read the sample ballots and don't realize there are other things to vote on besides the two Republicrats going for president.
They are probably caught by complete surprise.
"Eminent domain? What the hell is eminent domain? I didn't know we had to study for a test. Dammit! Whose idea was it to have a pop quiz?"
I just got back from voting. This past 2 years has lead up to what is very anticlimatic for me. I voted because it's my duty but I really don't care about the outcome. Tia has decided not to vote because there is no point. The Republicrats have won again and there is no undoing the brainwashing of Idol-watchers.
This post is not a rant though despite the opening blurb. The most prominent emotion for me is "finally, it's over". I'm relieved that it's over* and maybe we can get back to more important topics like who got voted off the island (or volcano or space shuttle or where ever this year's Survivor is taking place).
I did want to report on the interesting situation that I found myself in this past month.
I live in the Rocky Mountains and, as such, I am surrounded by Republicans. As the election drew closer, more and more of these people would share their thoughts with me about the problems with Obama. I agreed with much of what they had to say.
Online, most of my friends are Democratic. I would read posts and email about the problems with McCain and again, I had to nod my head and agree.
Both groups are right about the other candidate. I got to sit and watch the two sides of the same coin disparage the other. It was interesting in a "train wreck" kind of way.
Now there is nothing left to do politically but try to adapt to and fight what the next presidential sell-out is going to impose upon us and get ready for 2012. The education process has to start now.
In the meantime, with the election over, I'll probably spend more time focusing inward. There are some things that I want to accomplish personally in the next 4 years. I need to move full-time into my own business and create more time to spend with my family. I need to focus my energy where I actually have some control. Not that I'm going to close myself off. I want to remain aware of what is happening but I want my energy to go toward something where I can make a difference.
If you haven't voted, get out and vote and then get back to work on important matters.
* When I say that it's over, I mean that it's over for me. For people who are interested in the outcome, there is likely to a lot of drama played out in the next few days, or weeks, or months, before anything is official. I'd like to see that not happen but with all the shenanigans that we've seen in the past, I doubt this is going to go smoothly.
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